[Folkserv] 4-19 - heritage rhetoric from Ghana's presidents

[Noyes, Dorothy]

Another ISFNR zoom talk from Ghana’s best-known folklorist, for anyone who was excited by the recent film –

Dorry


Dorothy Noyes
Director, Mershon Center
Arts & Sciences Distinguished Professor of English
Professor of Comparative Studies
The Mershon Center for International Security Studies
1010 Derby Hall, 154 N. Oval Mall
The Ohio State University
Columbus, OH 43210
noyes.10 at osu.edu<mailto:noyes.10 at osu.edu>



From: Nidhi Mathur <nisfnr at gmail.com>
Date: Wednesday, April 10, 2024 at 22:16
To: Nidhi Mathur <nidhimathur42 at yahoo.com>
Subject: Fwd: The ISFNR lecture on 19 April 2024: Professor Kwesi Yankah
Dear ISFNR members, As a means of encouraging and stimulating world-wide cooperation among folklorists, and to getting better aquainted with each other's research, the ISFNR has launched the online lecture series entitled The ISFNR Lecture
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Dear ISFNR members,

As a means of encouraging and stimulating world-wide cooperation among folklorists, and to getting better aquainted with each other's research, the ISFNR has launched the online lecture series entitled The ISFNR Lecture Series: Voices from Around the Globe. On Friday, 19 April 2024, at 5 p.m. CEST, we will present the eleventh lecture in the series, entitled Ghana’s Presidents and the Rhetoric of Heritage.
The lecture will be given by Professor Kwesi Yankah, University of Ghana<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Ghana__;!!KGKeukY!zTDZh0FQCaAtwRdJM2seyHMHMLcndMrvSGSdBKIpuOtNBbSSTnKlfIqTJuxzPxijeM5UxqIWMp8K2so$>, and will be chaired by Professor Sadhana Naithani, University of New Delhi. Please see the abstract and short bionote of the lecturer below.

The lecture will take place in English and will be accessible at the following zoom link which you are welcome to share with any interested parties:
Topic: ISFNR lecture by Kwesi Yankah
Time: Apr 19, 2024 05:00 PM CEST
https://penta-zagreb-hr.zoom.us/j/83650957528<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/penta-zagreb-hr.zoom.us/j/83650957528__;!!KGKeukY!zTDZh0FQCaAtwRdJM2seyHMHMLcndMrvSGSdBKIpuOtNBbSSTnKlfIqTJuxzPxijeM5UxqIWUY04Yj0$>
Meeting ID: 836 5095 7528

For further information, see: http://isfnr.org/isfnr-online-lectures/<https://urldefense.com/v3/__http:/isfnr.org/isfnr-online-lectures/__;!!KGKeukY!zTDZh0FQCaAtwRdJM2seyHMHMLcndMrvSGSdBKIpuOtNBbSSTnKlfIqTJuxzPxijeM5UxqIWFqrZ3qk$>

We very much hope to meet you online!

(At this occasion we would like to inform you in advance that, due to the ISFNR congress, the next ISFNR lecture will take place already on the first Friday in June, i.e. on 7 June 2024 at 5p.m.)

With my very best wishes,
Mirjam Mencej, on behalf of the EC of the ISFNR

Abstract
The paper puts in a broad context the general exploitation of ethno-poetic resources by
Ghana’s presidents to drive public policy and boost political charisma. Here icons of group
identity derived from heritage are prioritized as quintessential, since they also celebrate a
leader’s affinity with the masses. This has been optimally expressed in moments of stress
where public sympathy is needed to drive policy or cope with a raging crisis. From the time of
Ghana’s independence to date, Ghana’s leaders have actively deployed heritage to legitimize
power and effectively convey policy positions. This was climaxed during the COVID-19
pandemic, when the President set the pace depicting policy responses to the crisis through
proverb icons in fabric wear. Ghana’s leader saw in the tragedy an opportunity to reinvent
tradition, and wipe the nation’s tears through proverb lore.
The entire exercise is seen as a collective appeal to tradition to cope with contemporary crises,
and as well demonstrate the healing power of heritage.

Bio note
Kwesi Yankah is a Ghanaian scholar in ethnography of communication, and a product of
University of Ghana and Indiana University (USA). An academic, administrator, and author of
several books, Yankah has been Vice-Chancellor of Central University, Ghana; and Deputy
Vice-Chancellor of University of Ghana. He was between 2017 and 2021 Ghana’s Minister of
State for tertiary educaJon. Yankah is a Fellow of the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences
(inducted 1997); Fellow, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (inducted 2022), and
Honorary Fellow, American Folklore Society (2018). He has been visiting fellow/scholar in
several universities including Indiana, Stanford, Northwestern, University of Pennsylvania,
Michigan (Ann Arbor), University of California, Berkeley; University of Birmingham (UK).
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